Many vehicles are designed to transport freight, goods, merchandise, personal property, and other large cargo. Often, these vehicles may be arranged to tow a towed vehicle, such as for example a trailer, by attaching the towed vehicle to the towing vehicle through use of some kind of hitch assembly. The towing industry has developed a number of methods and apparatuses for securing or engaging the towed vehicle to the towing vehicle, such as attaching a trailer to a pick-up truck or other kind of truck with a load bed.
There are many different types of trailer hitches in the art that may be attached to the towing vehicle depending on the type of towed vehicle and towing vehicle involved. Some of the most common types of hitches include gooseneck, fifth wheel, and rear mounted. For example, towed vehicles may be connected to the towing vehicle by way of a hitch assembly that includes a ball hitch or member secured to the towing vehicle and a ball socket coupling mechanism secured to the towed vehicle that mounts over the hitch ball and thereby allows for the towed vehicle to pivot behind the towing vehicle.
Numerous types of hitch balls have been developed to be attached to the bumper or other rear portion of a towing vehicle. The towed vehicle may be equipped with a coupler mechanism to be attached to the towing vehicle by placing the coupler mechanism over the hitch ball and securing the coupler to the hitch ball. Similar apparatus using hitch receivers attached to the rear of the towing vehicle and drawbars may be used to secure towed vehicles to towing vehicles.
Some towed vehicles may be designed to carry heavy loads. Connecting such a towed vehicle to a ball hitch on a bumper of a towing vehicle, however, may be impractical. When a towed vehicle load is heavy as compared to the weight of the towing vehicle, applying the towed vehicle load generally over or in front of the rear axle of the towing vehicle may create a more desirable towing condition. In addition, such an arrangement may put much of the force of the towed vehicle load onto structural members of the towing vehicle, such as the frame, whereby the hitch ball may be located, for example, in the truck bed.
There are generally two arrangements for securing a towed vehicle to the bed of a towing vehicle—a fifth wheel hitch and a gooseneck hitch. A fifth wheel hitch may be utilized with towed vehicles having a king pin, which may be part of a pin box attached to the towed vehicle. A gooseneck hitch may be utilized with a towed vehicle having a gooseneck coupler that may generally be coupled to a hitch ball that may be located in the bed of the towing vehicle. The hitch ball may be permanently or removably secured to the frame or bed of the towing vehicle.
The towed vehicle coupler often has a socket portion that is sized and shaped to receive the hitch ball. The gooseneck coupler may engage the hitch ball to pivotally couple the towed vehicle to the towing vehicle. The gooseneck coupler to hitch ball connection may allow for relative movement between the towing vehicle and the towed vehicle as the towing vehicle makes turns, traverses uneven or rough terrain, and passes along inclining and declining roadways. The hitch ball member may be removed or lowered to a stowed position below the bed to ensure that the use of the bed is not substantially hindered by the presence of the ball.
Gooseneck couplers may be utilized for heavy duty towing, but have limitations under such conditions. For example, a gooseneck coupler utilized in conjunction with a heavy duty ball, such as a three inch ball, may offer a head rating of 40,000 pounds or adjustable applications of up to 30,000 pounds. However, adjustable applications are not available with a rating of over 30,000 pounds. The current three inch ball heads having ratings up to 40,000 pounds maximum gross trailer weight do not provide adjustment or telescoping tubes. These gooseneck couplers have design constraints that contribute their failure to meet the SAE minimum pitch and roll and vertical tension requirements.
Further, there is limited ball articulation and no landing area for ball entry, which makes hook up difficult. There are other three inch ball heads with a 30,000 pound load capacity with adjustable couplers. These gooseneck couplers, however, are only rated at 30,000 pound maximum gross trailer weight rating. These also include a lot of moving parts, pinch points and are difficult to operate. Further, these prior art gooseneck couplers do not posses a landing area large enough to allow the hitch ball and socket to be off center by more than one inch and still find center without having to reposition the tow vehicle in relation to the towing vehicle. Instead they utilize a front only ball entry.
Therefore, there is a need for a heavy duty adjustable gooseneck coupler having a rating of over 30,000 pounds that overcomes the deficiency noted above.